Article 8 — Whether action and passion will remain in the elements after the heavens have ceased to be in motion

The eighth point of inquiry is whether action and passion will remain in the elements after the heavens have ceased to be in motion. (Parallel texts: In II Sent. 11.2.6, ad 3; 33.2.1, ad 3; In IV Sent. 44.3.1, qa. 3; Quodlibet VII, a. 11.)

Obj. 1: And it seems they will. For natural powers are determined to one thing; thus, the power of fire, being a natural capacity, is oriented to heating, and not to not heating. Now, as we have said before, at the consummation of the world, fire and other elements will retain their powers. (Q. 5, a. 7.) Therefore, it will be impossible for fire and the other elements not to be active.

Obj. 2: As the Philosopher says, mutual action and passion require the agent and patient to be alike in matter and unlike in form. (Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption 1.18, 322b6–323a11; 1.19, 323b29.) Now, when the heavens cease to be moved, this will be the case, since their substance will remain and their essential principles will be unchanged. Therefore, after the cessation of the heavenly movement, there will be action and passion in the elements.

Obj. 3: The cause of action and passion in the elements is the fact that in the element’s matter there is always an appetite for another form, although the matter is perfected by one form. But this appetite will remain in matter even after the heavens have ceased to be moved, for the whole potency of matter cannot be fulfilled by one form. Therefore, action and passion will remain in the elements at the consummation of the world.

Obj. 4: That which belongs to the perfection of an element will not be taken from it. Now, it belongs to the perfection of every being to produce its like; for diffusion of its being derives from the first good into all beings. Therefore, it seems that, after the consummation of the world, the elements will produce their like; and thus, action and passion will be in them.

Obj. 5: Just as it is proper to fire to be hot, so is it proper to fire to heat; for just as heat results from the essential principles of fire, so heating results from heat. If, then, at that consummation of things, fire and its heat will remain, it seems that heating will remain as well.

Obj. 6: All bodies in contact with one another in some way alter one another, as is clear in On Generation and Corruption 1. (Aristotle, On Generation and Corruption 1.18, 323a9–11.) Now, in that state of the world, the elements will be in contact with one another. Therefore, they will alter one another, and thus, there will be action and passion.

Obj. 7: At the consummation of the world, the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold (Isa 30:26). But the sun and moon by their light illumine the lower bodies now. Therefore, then they will much more powerfully illumine them, and so there will remain a certain action and passion in these lower thing, since the illuminated medium will illuminate the furthest part.

Obj. 8: The saints with their bodily sight will see the things of this world. Now, vision cannot exist without action and passion, because sight is passive to the visible. Therefore, there will be action and passion, even after the cessation of the heavenly movement.

On the contrary (1), if the cause be removed, the effect is removed also. Now, the heavenly movement is the cause of action and passion in these lower things, according to the Philosopher’s teaching. (Aristotle, Meteorology 1.2, 339a21–32; On the Heavens 2.10, 289a19–30.) Therefore, after the cessation of the heaven’s movement, there will be no more action and passion in these lower things.

Furthermore (2), there can be no action and passion in bodies without movement. But if the first movement, which is that of heaven (as is shown in Physics 8), cease, all subsequent movements will cease also. (Aristotle, Physics 8.10, 267a2–11; see also 8.1, 251b25–252a3.) Therefore, with the cessation of the celestial movement, action and passion will cease in these lower things.

I answer that, according to The Book Of Causes, (The Book of Causes, Proposition 1.) when the first cause withdraws its action from the effect, the second cause must also withdraw its own action from the same thing, inasmuch as the second cause has the very fact that it acts through the action of the first cause, in the power of which it acts. Now, since every agent acts to the degree that it is in act, the order of agent causes must be taken according to their order in actuality.

Now, the lower bodies have less of actuality than do the heavenly bodies, for their entire potency is not made complete by their act, inasmuch as their matter underlying one form retains a potency to another form. This is not the case in the heavenly bodies, since their matter is not in potency to another form, so their entire potentiality is terminated by the form that they have.

In fact, the separated substances are more perfect in actuality than even the heavenly bodies, since they are not composed of matter and form but are certain subsistent forms—yet ones that fall short of God’s actuality, who is his own being, which is not possible for other separated substances. Also, just as we see that the elements also surpass one another in the gradation of actuality, water holding more of species than earth, air more than water, and fire more than air, so it is as well in the heavenly bodies and in separated substances.

Accordingly, the elements act in the power of the heavenly bodies, and the heavenly bodies in the power of separated substances; whence when the separated substances cease to act, the action of the heavenly body must cease also, and when this ceases, the action of the elemental body must also cease.

It must be observed, however, that a body has a twofold action: one according to a property of a body, such that it acts by movement (for it is proper to a body that it move and act as something moved); the other action it has is insofar as it reaches the order of the separated substances and participates in something of their mode, just as lower natures are wont to participate in something of what is proper to a higher nature; this is apparent in certain animals that participate in a certain likeness to prudence, which is proper to human beings. This latter is an action of a body that is not for the sake of transforming matter, but is rather for the sake of some diffusing of the likeness of a form within what is intermediate, according to a likeness with the spiritual intention that is received of a thing in sensation and understanding; and in this way the sun illuminates the air and color multiplies its species in the medium.

Now, both these actions are caused in these lower things by the heavenly bodies. For fire by its heat both transforms matter from the power of a heavenly body, and visible bodies multiply their own species in the medium by the power of light, the source of which is within a heavenly body. Therefore, if both these actions on the part of a heavenly body were to cease, no action would remain in these lower things. But if the heavens were to cease to be in motion, the first action would cease, but not the second; and consequently, when the heavenly movement ceases, in these lower things the action by which the medium is illumined and affected by sensible things will still occur, but not the action by which matter is transformed, and which results in generation and corruption.

Reply Obj. 1: The power of fire is indeed always determined to heating, but still on the presupposition of those prior causes that are required for the action of fire.

Reply Obj. 2: Likeness in matter and contrariety of form are not sufficient for action and passion in these lower things unless the heavenly movement be presupposed, in the power of which all the lower active powers act.

Reply Obj. 3: Matter is not sufficient for action without an active principle being given. Therefore, the appetite of matter is not a sufficient proof of action in the elements without the heavenly movement, from which is the first principle of action.

Reply Obj. 4: Lower things never attain the grade of perfection of their superiors. Now, it belongs to the account of the perfection of the supreme agent that his own perfection suffices for acting without the aid of any other agent; and consequently, this cannot be attributed to the lower agents.

Reply Obj. 5: Provided that fire has some action, heating is proper to fire; yet its action is dependent on something else, as already stated.

Reply Obj. 6: The same solution applies, inasmuch as contact is not enough for the action of the elements unless we presuppose the movement of the heavens.

Reply Obj. 7–8: We grant the two remaining arguments, since they do not apply to actions by which matter is transformed, but to actions by which species are in a certain way multiplied in the mode of a spiritual intention.